What is the most recent bible translation?

Answer 1

The New World Translation, produced by Jehovah's Witnesses.

To Quote:

• Dr. Benjamin Kedar, a Hebrew scholar in Israel, (1989): "This work reflects an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible. . . . I have never discovered in the New World Translation any biased intent to read something into the text that it does not contain."
• Andover Newton Quarterly, September (1966): "The New Testament translation was made by a committee whose membership has never been revealed-a committee that possessed an unusual competence in Greek."
• Edgar J. Goodspeed, translator of the Greek "New Testament" in An American Translation, wrote in a letter dated December 8, 1950: "I am interested in the mission work of your people, and its world wide scope, and much pleased with the free, frank and vigorous translation. It exhibits a vast array of sound serious learning, as I can testify."
• "This is no ordinary interlinear: the integrity of the text is preserved, . . . . In sum, when a Witness comes to the door, the classicist, Greek student, or Bible student alike would do well to bring him in and place an order."-From a review of TheKingdom Interlinear Translationof the Greek Scriptures, by Thomas N. Winter of the University of Nebraska, appearing in The Classical Journal, April-May 1974.
• etc etc etc

• Another Answer:

  'Best' is an arguable term, however, those most consistently in line with the original Greek and Hebrew would be the King James Bible and the more 'modern' terminology of the New King James Bible. These are called 'word-for-word' translations. Others like the New International Version and the Revised English Version are categorized as 'meaning for meaning' translations and can provide valuable secondary information when having difficulty in a Scripture. Lastly, the least reliable perhaps are the paraphrasing versions like The Living Bible that has as its goal making the Bible easier to read and is at times at the expense of the true understanding of the Scripture.

  An outside group that many believe should be totally avoided are those that intentionally add/delete translation terms to suit their own agenda. Some believe this is the case with the New World Translation which they say Jehovah Witness parent organization 'The Watch Tower,' intentionally changed the rendering of text to conform to their theology. Their translation of John 1:1 is the most well known change of the original.

Answer 2

easy to read

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All so-called new versions on the market are junk, that is: from corrupt manuscripts found in a trash can. Research it. The only true text closest to the originals is the Authorized Version: the King James. Not the "New King James".

Another Answer:

The English Standard Version (ESV) of 2001. Regardless of the version used - as nearly all present the same thought/meaning but worded slightly different - one could own every version of Scripture and still be far from understanding its true meaning. This requires prayer that God will open up our minds to His word correctly. Many 'evangelicals' have found the NASB to be quite favorable. For study, I use the NKJV but often refer to other online versions to get the fuller, and at times clearer meaning of a verse or passage.

Answer 3

The Bible has 2 parts. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the new testament in greek. From then on there have been translations (Septuagint, to latin(Vulgate), to old/middle/early modern/modern English etc). Each translation supposedly was an accurate (word for word) translation of the original text. Then there were revisions. Every popular version, New International Version, New American Standard Bible, Amplified Bible, the King James Version, is trying to be as close to the original as possible.

But there is a problem, because, as a general rule, English words have a broader meaning than ancient greek words which were more explicit, especially in words with many meanings (good, honor, ethics etc). Not to mention that the same word may mean different things in different period of times, in a different age. Further more even with excellent knowledge of ancient greek (greek koini) and Hebrew, the study of each word is a large portion of the science of theology.
All translations of the Bible are interpretations at best. No one translation stands out as the "most" reliable.
No. translations by definition are interpretations. None are 100% reliable. The only way to get a reliable reading, is to read the text in its original language.

Answer 4

The only reliable way to read the scriptures is in their original language. many Jewish Bibles have the complete Hebrew bible in its original form.

As for Greek versions of the New Testament, they are hard to find.

Answer 5

'Best' is an arguable term, however, those most consistently in line with the original Greek and Hebrew would be the King James Bible and the more 'modern' terminology of the New King James Bible. These are called 'word-for-word' translations. Others like the New International Version and the Revised English Version are categorized as 'meaning for meaning' translations and can provide valuable secondary information when having difficulty in a Scripture. Lastly, the least reliable perhaps are the paraphrasing versions like The Living Bible that has as its goal making the Bible easier to read and is at times at the expense of the true understanding of the Scripture.

Another version that many believe should be totally avoided are those that intentionally add/delete translational terms to suit their own agenda. Some believe this is the case with the New World Translation which they say Jehovah Witness parent organization 'The Watch Tower,' intentionally changed the rendering of text to conform to their theology. Their translation of John 1:1 is the most well known change of the original.

Answer 6

The reliability of translations depends on opinion. All translations are essentially the translator's opinion of what the original document means.

The Hebrew Bible

Jews usually read the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, or at least in side-by-side version with a translation (Hebrew on one page, and English on the opposite page), so the original is never far off. Side-by-side translated Bibles are easy to find in Jewish bookstores or on Amazon. One of the best, with a very careful translation is the Koren Tanach, which not only has Hebrew and English, but also uses Hebrew phonetic spellings of all the people and place names (Moshe instead of Moses, Avraham instead of Abraham) etc. according to Hebrew pronunciation.

The New Testament

Christians tend to never read the original Hebrew or Greek documents, and side-by-side translations of the New Testament are difficult to come by. Most bilingual editions are interlinear (one line Greek, the next line Engish, the next line Greek, etc), which makes English reading a bit challenging. A good edition for those studying Greek is the Greek-English New Testament, which is a side-by-side (Greek on one page, and English on the opposite page). It uses the Revised Standard Version of English, which is reasonably accurate.

The only guaranteed reliable way to read the scriptures is in their original language, but side-by-side versions can offer a tremendous amount of help to those who are just beginning to learn the Greek or Hebrew language or those who know it but are not fluent.

Answer 7

This answer relates to the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish Bible (the Tanakh) is only in the original Hebrew. Any translation, whether done by Jews or Gentiles, is, at best, no more than an indication of what the Tanakh is saying. The translations leave out all or most of the Hebrew Bible's accompanying oral tradition, its traditional musical chant (cantillation, which provides punctuation and emotion), and the fact that many verses teach us a number of things.

Personally, I would recommend Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's The Living Torah, and The Living Nach (Prophets).

See also the Related Link.

History of the Hebrew Bible

Answer 8

Many would say the King James Version, also called the Authorized Version.

Answer 9

All translations of the Bible are interpretations at best. No one translation stands out as the "most" reliable.

Answer 10

No. translations by definition are interpretations. None are 100% reliable. The only way to get a reliable reading, is to read the text in its original language.